14A - The Cerberi System, the home of the C.C.T.

The Cerberi system, home to three planets, four moons, a gas giant and a mineral rich asteroid belt surrounding it. Burning brightly in the center is the star 3829 Cerberi, roughly four billion years old. Any ship entering would immediately notice the various man made orbital platforms and satellites covering Leonis and Malcarri, docking stations for larger ships visiting the system amongst over things. Orbital defense satellites sit stalwart, having not seen a orbital threat to the Coalitions home for hundreds of years. Floating around Leonis' closest moon sat the remains of the democratic fleet, hunks of twisted metal either too contaminated to retrieve or simply not worth the cost. It was open to the public and looking in-depth many would see scavengers skirting through the former hulls for anything the engineer corp missed. From above Leonis was grey, bare two pockets at the north and south, covered in ash and twisted beyond recognition, one would not be able to look on the Leonis landscape and once picture grand forests and grassy fields. But travelling to either of the poles, combating the mountainous landscape they'd find all that was left of what the old Leonis appeared as, forests dwarfing buildings and constantly shaded by the expansive canopy. This where the free tribes held their home, not far from the grasp of Coalitions home army, but at-least safe.

The only other colonized planet in the Cerberi system, Malcarri, was spared the horrors of nuclear war. Fascists seizing victory a month into hostilities. It was dominated by jungles, plains and deserts. Metropolis' spread over the environment, spreading out far and wide, the opposite to the bunker compact underground havens of Leonis. Hyper-Trains zip across the landscape, hitting speeds of 400 MPH to transport low priority cargo as well as passengers from city to city. Malcarri is free of Cisri tribes but subject to more and more democratic attacks. But otherwise, the planet of Malcarri is living in a relative peace.

Five figures trudged through the snow covered peaks of the lower Mansonic range, hugging the border between the democratic rebel hideaways and Cisri hunting grounds. Protected from the environments in their power suits the group came to a halt as the snow encompassed them, the rolling snowstorms had slowed them down repeatedly, even though they had powerful enough comms they weren't effected by it and thermals replaced would of meant there was no possibility they'd lose each-other. The entire group took a knee. They'd wait until it passed again before continuing on the trek over the peaks. An hour more of hiking and it was obvious what their objective was; a downed aircraft, smoke still rising from its cracked hull.

"Falconer to Kommando 04, reached phase one.".

The group shuffled into a diamond formation, setting down their backpacks and retrieving the rifles from their backpacks, assembling them as Kommando 4 got back to them.

True to the words, there was no response while the group set out again. Heading further into the beast of the far North.________________________________________

New Frankfurt City Center, Malcarri.The bustling city high street was louder and rowdier than ever, deciding to make its presence known to the crowd to deter any unruly characters, two polizei model Type 528 Offroad Vehicles sat right in the center of the high street, in between the two highest grossing stores on the strip. The regular slots where the guns sat on any military version was replaced by a simple hatch, allowing any officer a commanding view over the crowd and to the side, a 30mm launcher for beanbags or the so-called nicknamed "Cisri gas", essentially a pumped up tear gas designed to incapacitate even the largest of Cisri warriors. Today was a big day for Frankfurt, the High Authority was visiting from the Capital on Leonis, which meant most everyone was out and about. Patriotism ran strife through the streets, most people being born loving the government authorities it meant it was a huge deal that one would be visiting their city; even bigger it was the leader of the entire Coalition, High Authority Holbach, he was there to praise the people of the city, the three ships headed to Armistice were all headed by Frankfurtian captains, had been supplied by Frankfurts logistics before they set out and hell; the lead ship was named after the city. Keeping this cities morale up was always a good thing, it was after all home to four out of the ten largest ammunition factories in the Coalition. This also meant that the law enforcement had to do some in house cleaning like not seen before, in the week before Holbachs arrival there had been a record 187 raids on anything that would've made Frankfurt look anything except perfect. The high street however, was pretty clear as people went around sprucing themselves up as if they were going to be meeting him themselves. The speech itself was in four days, but Holbach would be in meetings and small public appearances leading up to it. But it still had the residents of New Frankfurt excited.________________________________________

Orbital Deep Space Relay Receiver 21.Floating away peacefully in the orbit of Malcarri's moon, Receiver 21 waited for a response from the Armistice fleet, or anyone really. Though it's objective was to focus on anything from Armistice or the exploration fleet, receiver 37 was in charge of patrols and patrols only for the shift. Both were directed to send anything else messaging them, alien or otherwise, straight to Receiver 44. The Receivers were pretty small, consisting of around four rooms, a dorm room, the communications room, living center and a airlock that doubled as a large cargo hold, storing the 12 man crew's provisions for its four month long deployment on the receivers. They'd monitor everything from distress calls, patrol reports, alien communications over open channels, amongst other things. The sound of deployment on a receiver was hell to any recruit going into the Navy as a communications officer, but once troopers actually got there and saw how it really was, there was nothing praised more than receiver duty. This particular receiver was headed by Lieutenant Sofie Bäcker, her third deployment on a receiver in her 3 year career with the Coalition navy. Leaning back in the commanders chair, she snatched the intercom and patched her way through to the living center.

"Robert, could you report to comms room when able, over."

Though the crew was normally casual with eachother, everyone was a little on edge, it was of course the first time a Coalition naval group had strayed past the predefined barriers, it was pretty big, especially for those in the military. If that fleet came back injured, in ruin, or worse, didn't return at all. It would mean the Coalition military would be marching to combat with whoever responsible, that's what happened with the people of Okri 341, now the planet was nothing more than a smoldering wreck. Private 1st Class Robert Ansell entered the comms room, his jumpsuit half done up.

"You requested my presence, ma'am?".

"Yes Robert, how long have we got before the next shift?".

"Seventeen minutes, ma'am.".

She wiped her eyes, it had been a long shift and she was ready for it to end, regardless of the situation for the Coalition now.

"How many time windows before we have to send a message to the fleet instead?".

Roberts would back up to the wall and access the touchscreen embedded, accessing the timer.

"Two more without a ping, four with one.".

The Lieutenant nodded and focused on the screen ahead of her once again.

"Dismissed.".she said, slouching further into the chair and focusing once again on the rhythmic beeps of the relay equipment.

New Hope, the first city founded by the AGSL on the planet of Malcarri. New Hope was one of the last cities where the Democratic rebels were in heavy fighting with the Coalition army. the city had never fallen to one side during the intense civil war and it was spared the nuclear treatment faced by the cities on Leonis. Regardless of that, it was in ruin, fighting had never ceased after the war and both sides fighting within forgot ceasefires the day after their announcements, the only people who seemed to suffer the most compared to the other two sides were the civilians within the city, the cities various 'humanity banks' required constant employees and the 'neutral zones' were the cheapest living in the entire Coalition, most of the housing being given away free anyway. Aid convoys from either side made their way through the urban war-zone to resupply and win over anyone they could to their side. The only reason that after the years of combat in New Hope it'd hadn't been destroyed from orbit or made into a smoldering crater was the large scientific center of the city, home to the multiple 'humanity banks' or by their true titles, vaults of the human preservation project. Huge underground systems, host to miles of tunnel systems, containing everything from human body parts to seeds from Earth, looted from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault by the AGSL, it was also home to the production plants of the Malcarrian Shock Troop power armour, one of the most advanced in the Coalitions armoury. The Coalition still had the ability to get it in and out, braver pilots making the low flights through the city streets until they could accelerate in relative safety through use of the open metro lines, harshly pulling into the higher atmosphere in under sixty seconds to avoid MANPADs. Life in New Hope was certainly unique and it would only grow more and more so in the coming days.

Metro Center Station.

Within the dilapidated urban sprawl, the metro connection met in the center, it was one of the few open areas within the city and the only place for drop ships to raise their speed for quick ascents into the upper atmosphere without raising from the safety of the cover in the high rises. By the time the craft had gotten enough speed covering the clear metro lines, they could outrun the heavily outdated anti-aircraft missiles wielded by the Democratic insurgents, making a sort of impromptu airport for the extraction of important materials from the scientific center. In the nearby communications center a semi-functional air traffic control center was in place, with comms with incoming and outgoing traffic as well as surrounding orbital platforms, much like the receivers and transmitters surrounding Malcarri. Nowhere in New Hope was ever relatively secure, even the best defenses gave way to some obscure weakness exploited by the wandering infantry elements. A crack in a weakened wall after the latest bombardment, a hidden sewer entrance unnoticed by the sweeps, but somehow the Metro yard had always had been relatively less of a hassle for the Coalitions security forces. Overlooking the entrance to the rail-lines from the path to the science center, a small group of Coalition light combat engineers had set up shop with a light defensive turret, looking out over the open rail-yards, they weren't really rail-yards, the name just stuck, in reality they were elongated magnetic stripes that stretched far out of the city.

"Leftenant, targeting is good but the barrel won't lock in ever since it took the fall on the way over here. The sweepers offered to grab one when the come full circle to the logi point.".

Lieutenant Purcell, new to deployment in New Hope, he'd been put in charge of a relatively easy job, to set up even more turrets to the already expansive perimeter. The room started to shake, small pieces of the ceiling above shaking loose and dropping down, no one was too concerned however, it was a regular occurrence, Purcell didn't even have to tell his team anymore, they all dropped to their knees or sat within the ruined building, himself following suit after. The shaking would come to a all time high as through the street came the Type 11 MO/AF carrying the latest shipment of Malcarrian power armour. The near-deafening roar of the engines it hovered over to the center of the rail-yard. The group all turned to watch as it lined up.

"Never get tired of this guys, do we?".

While the group talked between each other, some chuckling and some just fixated on the waiting craft. The lieutenant just waited, checking the thermal imagining on the turrets control pad. The basic, across the expanse of the yard were two sweepers making their rounds by the perimeter fence. An opposite engineer team waiting by the burnt out train cars for the craft to pass. Some flickers of thermals on the roofs opposite but that was most likely one of the roving marksman teams. The engines roared and the craft lurched slowly forward as it prepared to shoot into the atmosphere.

"Brace guys".

Purcell was of course referring to the booster that all Type 11's were outfitted with, it'd blow over anything behind it, infamous for turning rubble and garbage around the rail-yards into deadly projectiles, within a few moments however, the radio would crackle to life.

"-All units, all units, Demo-MANPAD spotted at the corner of 3rd and Hallmark. All troops converge, all troops converge!-.".

Purcells eyes shot up, that was across the road. The sweepers were already seizing the building but it was too late, the signature white smoke cloud materialized on the rooftop and in a split-second later the explosion hit the craft. The radio crackled again, frenzied calls from the pilots to ground control and commands to infantry units. A klaxon wailed somewhere closer to HQ, but it was all muffled by the spluttering engines as the craft raised above the buildings, then dropped again, the doomed aircraft drifted warily to the HQ, hoping that it could set down close to the engineers and ground crew. Figures rushed out from the defensive wall, ready with fire extinguishers, with one last triumphant try the gear dropped down and the engines dropped again, hitting the ground hard, the strained engines burst into flame and the craft almost seemed to collapse in on itself for a moment. It was needless to say that those below the craft were doomed just as much as the pilots. Purcell couldn't believe what he had seen, the craft was gone, the first he'd ever seen go down and now the defensive perimeter was in flames alongside a good portion of the security detail. In a moment, two technicals rushed forward past Purcell's position as once more the radio came again, a worried voice near shouting over the sounds of gunfire and people rushing around the operator.

"-This is Vonnegut comms post, Metro ATC is down, Democratic's attacking in force over! They're rushing for the transmitter controls, we no longer have access to deep space drones and we cannot deactivate them.".

Purcell looked around, his team had all received the message as well. Equally confused but ready to rush into action.

"We've got to move to Vonnegut now, we'll cut through the side streets behind this building. Gustav, keep ready with the breacher, we may be making holes.".

With that, Purcell and his team shifted out into the alleys, rushing to the communications post. However, they were too late, Democratics had already made their way inside the walls and were putting their plan into motion._________________________________

Deep Space Drone Deployment Station 12

The age-old way of communication in the Coalition, drones equipped to send pre-recorded Tachyon transmissions with any craft they encountered. They sent one message and then set the way for further communications back with it's host, sort of like a proxy, it never gave the chance to track the communication back unless the drone itself was secured, but as the Coalition advanced its encryption it was more than obsolete, but useful for cheap transport. The station was uninhabited unlike the receivers. As its orders came from New Hope, a drone shot out of the station, essentially a communications relay, with several large recharging batteries and enough fuel in it to jump quite a considerable distance. Within a moment it was gone, destination unknown to the frenzied C.C.T. orbital command.

All sorts of alarms started going off as the ship exited Faster Than Light travel, and Commander Vultran started cursing beneath his breath. How had he missed this? He began scrolling through the reports sent back by one of the dozens of sensor drones they had sent out looking for life, resources, or anything else useful to the Imperium out into space, but the one they had sent here had sent back minimal information. It was either a malfunction by the droid, or direct tampering from the people living here.

The Commander stood from his chair and began pacing back and forth. The Deliverance was barely armed, by no means capable of withstanding an onslaught by the numerous ships stationed around the planet it now was very close to. He began to weigh some options in his head.

"Do we know who lives here?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll find out."

It only took the AI a few moments before she responded.

"The transmissions and the technology we are picking up seem to match the systems used by the Coalition of Cleansed Territories. They recently established themselves on Armistice. I'm sending a briefing to both you and Special Agent Foley."

"Thank you."

The Commander began reading through what the Imperium had about the C.C.T. There wasn't much. This ship was meant for deep space exploration, and that's is what it was currently doing. This system couldn't be farther from the Imperium's home world.

It did not take Special Agent Foley to find his way onto the bridge and make his way over to Commander Vultran. Special Agent Foley was given that title because he actually was a special breed of O.M.I. He wasn't a PHANTOM, and he certainly not trained for combat operations. While the Commander was officially in command of the ship, Special Agent Foley was the one overseeing the entire mission. He worked for O.M.I, but his goal was purely for research. However, he was trained to handle situations such as this as well. A trained ambassador, Foley had known first contact protocol but this was something different. He began giving orders to the Commander.

"Open a communications channel, but do not talk first. Send a transmission back to the Imperium, and wait until they contact us first. Keep our shields up and our warp drive ready in case they open fire. Remember, radio silence towards them, I want them to contact us first. This is their home, not ours."

The newly entered Imperium craft had been first spotted by the Interceptor station, a measly 300km away. A old and due to be retired idea, the various stations sat in free space just waiting for anything to enter the system. Each one hosted six Type 20 Interceptors each sporting a single ship-to-ship nuclear missile, the same sized one used in the main armament of the Coalitions largest battleships. They'd speed in quickly and let off their payload while the fleet mobilized, after the years there had only been two uses of Interceptor stations system wide, leading to their downsizing and replacement by missile satellites.. Onboard station 14, klaxons started to wail. One for the identification of a craft flying with a IFF unknown to the Coalition, and a much more urgent one for a craft within 500km. The station went to full threat levels as CIWS came on line. Four of the six Interceptors dispatched and made a beeline for the Imperium ship. Short-range comms came on-line from the station.

"Unidentified craft, state your intent and origin, disable any weapons systems immediately. Should our craft come under fire or detect weapons systems you will be fired upon, how do you respond?".